Your data is meant for action.
The Juice Analytics team will be in Nashville July 9 – 11, 2012 and while we can’t carry a tune, we’ll have with us an interactive demo of our hosted reporting platform to share. Of course, we’ll also share the latest around dashboard and interface design, as well as data visualization, in general, along with other stuff that interests you.
Reach out if you’d like to meet up while we’re in town.
(P.S. If other cities have pent up demand for Juice, reach out and we’ll consider a visit.)
Cheers!
Is the Score or the Rainbow More Memorable?
A cool afternoon rain was the only thing damper than the spirits of the 12-year-olds who shuffled off the field. With the score still lit up on the wooden scoreboard, the coaches yelled to the boys as they struggled to lift their heads so they might catch a glimpse of a rainbow as it rose from the fence in front of them.
The players of both the winning and losing teams stood there on the wet, steamy grass, frozen in place, in awe of the sight of a rainbow that mystically appeared as if painted on the sky just for them to see. For them, it was an atta boy, pat on the back, a perfect way to wrap up a hard fought double header in which the score had not quite represented the effort that the losing team had given, where the stats failed to tell the tale that brought these two teams together on the hallowed Cooperstown soil.
That’s the thing about numbers. When left to their own devices, they can feel as cold as digits on a lonely scoreboard. They say nothing of the teams who trained for months, played together game after game, relinquished their Saturdays and played nearly perfect seasons just to get to the tournament.
Numbers alone tell us nothing of context. When we have something particularly meaningful to say, images help us share it best. Dashboards and data visualizations bring to life presentations in which we can engage in two-way conversations with our audience making the story around our data more memorable, impactful and effective than any spreadsheet or table of numbers we can put in front of them.
What will your audience remember? The numbers, the final score? Share visually, and they will remember the rainbow and the sunshine that most certainly will follow.
Special thanks to Peter Bielan, my significant other, for inspiring this blog by sharing this photo that he shot during his son’s baseball team pilgrimage to Cooperstown, NY this week.
Clad in neon green from their jerseys to their shoes, the Baylor Bears advanced to the South Regional finals in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament last night, leading by as many as 18 points in a game that was pretty hard to watch. Literally.
Can Color Create a Competitive Advantage?
Spectators had lots to say about Baylor in the Georgia Dome last night, but instead of commenting about their talent, skill and ball handling, most people talked about the obnoxious neon “green” color that the Bears and their fans were wearing. Their neon green uniforms (think “tennis ball” yellow) made it nearly impossible to keep your eyes off of them — yet for many of us, was a complete distraction from the game itself.
As I tried to watch, I thought about the critical role that color plays in the communication of data and information. By highlighting certain details with color, we choose to draw attention to them or put greater emphasis on them. At the same time, color has the potential to confuse or distract our audience if the color we select conflicts with the message or purpose we have in mind.
Can color impact outcomes, giving one team a greater (and perhaps unfair) advantage over another? Could the Baylor Bear’s neon uniforms be playing a part in their success?
What are your thoughts?
For more on color and tips for your next presentation, design or data visualization, see “Color Has Meaning”.
Spring is a great time to spruce things up. While you’re at it, consider adding a little shine to you and your skills.
We’ve made it easy for you by adding five more videos to our resources page that will help sharpen your saw, as Stephen Covey might say, in this important area of your life. From graphing to table design, color to typography best practices, you’ll find these video tutorials full of tips, tricks and tidbits that you’ll be using long after the pollen rinses away and your antihistamine goes back in the drawer.
And, just in case you’ve been fogged over, we launched a new page on our site a few weeks ago, Design Principles. If designing from the human perspective interests you, you’ll find this a valued extension to your knowledgebase.
Achoo! (That is, here’s to you!)
If you’re in or around Nashville and hear an unfamiliar voice break out in song, it might just be one of our Juicers inspired by a trip through Music City.
We’ll be in Nashville, Tennessee on March 1 and 2, 2012, and we would enjoy catching up with you while we’re there. There’s a lot to discuss, from industry news to the latest here at Juice, and we look forward to hearing about what’s going on in your corner of the data viz world.
If you’ll be in the Nashville area and would like to connect with us, leave us a comment or send an email to info@juiceanalytics.com.
(And, if you can carry a tune, all the better.)
Clear bright white and nostalgic colored string lights adorn otherwise commonplace trees and shrubbery on nearly every block this time of year. Neighborhoods and shopping centers look like beautiful storybook villages as we pass, enjoying our commutes a little bit more in spite of the holiday traffic.
On my drive home last night, the thought occurred to me that data is a lot like holiday lights. When organized in an attractive and appealing dashboard design, the power of data is enhanced and can be even more powerful and meaningful. Data, when displayed in a striking new way can be more intriguing to us, and as a result, we’re more likely to engage with it. Perhaps we would have missed the very same data had it been organized and presented in a less pleasing fashion.
By presenting data in a way in which our psyche is predisposed to receive it, we allow our audience to see and hear the story that we have to share, and then help them gain clarity and understanding around the data. It is then that we have their attention and the opportunity to make a point, deliver a pitch, close a sale or ask them to make a decision.
Sharing information in a context in which people are open and most receptive to receiving it is intuitive. It’s human nature to appreciate attractive things, especially pretty lights, to give and receive beautifully and thoughtfully wrapped packages and to look forward to the promise of a brand new year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Juice Team!
Using proper dashboard design techniques is a topic that struck a chord when we released our white paper series
“A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use” a few years ago, and still seems to resonate as people regularly download the content from the Juice Analytics website, and we receive ongoing requests to speak around these key principles.
Since we can all use a little calibration every once in a while to stay in tune, we thought we’d post it again, with a reminder that you can access this oldie but goody, along with other materials on the Juice Analytics resources page anytime — and that all of these materials are available to you gratis.
Should you have a friend, colleague or know someone who could benefit from a little dashboard design “religion”, feel free to let them know where you found yours.
Do you have your child’s drawing on the wall of your cube, office or maybe at home on the fridge? Can you remember visualizing the world that simply? When was the last time you looked at anything quite that way? What if you did?
Well, we did just that. And, our effort resulted in a video to share with people about what we do here at Juice. We hope you like it.
(P.S. Thank your kid for the artwork covering that stain on your wall — and for the great analogy.)
There’s a crispness in the air, the leaves are turning, and a restlessness has surfaced that is unmistakable. Road trip!
November 1 & 2, Juice is going to be in Boston. So, if you’ll be in town and you’d like to meet up, reach out and let us know. Or if you happen to know someone in the Boston area who is into data visualization — or should be — take this opportunity to reach out to them. Just “Say Hello to Someone From Massachusetts” and invite them to ping us.
There’s a lot to catch up on from industry news to the latest here at Juice, and we look forward to hearing about what’s going on in your corner of the data viz world.
If you’ll be in the Boston area and would like to connect with us, leave us a comment or send an email to info@juiceanalytics.com.
“Cheers!”
If you’ve ever tried to get anywhere in Atlanta at 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday, you’re painfully aware of the seemingly perpetual problem we have with traffic. Last year, Atlanta was ranked as the 4th worst city for commuters.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Atlanta Map:
That’s why Juice teamed up with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution(AJC) to help metro Atlantans better understand and visualize the magnitude of the initiative which encompasses projects across a 10-county region at a proposed cost of $6.14 billion. If voters approve the new transportation referendum in Summer 2012, it will be the biggest single transportation effort in the region in over 40 years. The referendum would add an extra one percent multi-county regional sales tax to fund the mammoth initiative over a 10-year period.
Juice designed a detailed map to accompany the AJC’s three-page cover story in order to help metro Atlantans better understand and visualize the magnitude of the initiative. The map provides readers with a bird’s eye view of the 118 proposed projects on the current draft of the referendum. The alpha-numeric coordinates along the “x” and “y” axis help readers find their bearings, while the color and pattern-coded keys help them easily identify degrees of traffic congestion and decipher roadway projects from transit projects, bike and pedestrian projects from aviation projects.
We are thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to our community to do what we can to help solve one of the region’s key challenges when it comes to growth, economy, and environment. We’re looking forward to seeing how this story plays out and are hopeful that visualizations such as this one will help voters and decision makers alike consume, process the massive amounts of data driving this effort, and act.
Unfortunately, the AJC only ran the map and accompanying story in the subscriber edition of the paper, so I’m not able to share a link.
We're in the process of preparing just that. Email us if you'd like to be included in the early access video at info [at] juiceanalytics.com ...
Missed both of these. Will they be available to review after the fact? ...
Amitp, That's a great point. It makes it clear that visualization is a toolkit that has to be properly applied by a data storytelling practitioner. Which raises the question: What other tools should a ...
This is werid there is not 100 ideas on here ..... LAME!! ...
Listening to Hans Rosling talk vs using his gapminder tools to explore the data is a great example showing how important the storytelling is compared to the visualization alone. ...
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